BOTHELL – The house where a toddler was beaten to death more than a decade ago was under police guard Friday night as detectives searched for the person who shot a man inside.
Major crimes detectives are investigating what they are calling a felony assault at the house where Noreen Erlandson fatally beat her 21/2-year-old adopted daughter, Kayla, in 1991.
Emergency crews arrived at 8 a.m. Friday after being called to the house in the 4300 block of 212th Street SE by a man who reported finding his father in a chair unconscious, not breathing and bloody, officials said.
The victim’s identity was not immediately released, but he is a resident at the home, Everett police Sgt. Boyd Bryant said.
Snohomish County records show that Erlandson’s former husband, Douglas B. Erlandson, 60, still lives at the house. The couple divorced in 2002.
The victim was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was listed in “very critical condition” Friday evening, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Bryant said it wasn’t immediately known whether Friday’s assault was linked to the 1991 homicide.
Police also would not say Friday if they had a suspect.
“Detectives have leads they are working on and more evidence to collect from the crime scene,” Bryant said, adding that he didn’t know if detectives had spoken to Noreen Erlandson about the assault.
Noreen Erlandson, 53, was a nurse when she was convicted of second-degree murder. A jury was shown evidence that she had beaten, burned and bitten Kayla, whom she had adopted from Korea.
Noreen Erlandson served about 12 years in prison, but was released in December 2004 after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter. Her freedom came after state Supreme Court rulings that invalidated dozens of murder convictions around the state.
She has been living in the area.
In May 2004, Douglas and Noreen Erlandson signed an agreement requiring him to refinance the family home and pay her $97,500. Those actions took place, said Everett lawyer Cynthia Bailey, who handled the divorce for Noreen Erlandson.
On Friday morning, the yellow crime scene tape and police cars were all too familiar to neighbors. They remember when detectives descended on the house in 1991, and they remember the horror of learning what had happened inside.
“I came home from work then and the street was blocked off. What happened to that little girl was horrible,” neighbor Susie Coates said. “It just seems too coincidental now.”
Neighbors haven’t seen any police at the house in recent weeks. They believe that only Douglas Erlandson and his son live at the house. They didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary Thursday night or Friday morning.
“The dogs would have gone crazy if anyone was lurking around,” neighbor Randy Coates said.
Everett police were investigating at the request of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, whose detectives have been spread thin working on other recent homicides and assaults.
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
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